Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister of State a good afternoon. I have three different areas I want to get to if possible. First, for those students who are not in a special class but who are in a mainstream class and receive resource hours, could the Minister of State outline what supplementary supports such children, for example, a child with a visual impairment or a deaf child in a mainstream class, are in receipt of?

Second, I want to return to the issue we talked a little about today, namely, early intervention and the lag that we might experience due to Covid. The Ombudsman for Children's Office, OCO, report, which I am sure the Department is aware of, which outlined issues around unmet needs included a concern around access to early intervention. Due to Covid disruption, there would be a significant cohort of students who may age-out of early educational intervention. This is partly because referring a child for an assessment of need with educational issues is hampered by a difficulty as regard the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs, EPSEN, Act 2004, in that some of the Act's provisions have not commenced. I understand that overlaps a little with the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte's area but it also relies on school principals to do much of the referring. The report states some of those gaps are being met by the use of the National Educational Psychological Service. My questions in that area are as follows. What actions are the Department taking to address the issues with and access to that early educational intervention? What are the plans as regards children who might age-out of it due to the disruption due to Covid? In this committee, we talk a great deal about the optional protocol, but that report also outlines that there is a lack of a robust mechanism to complain or raise concerns around issues when it comes to referring for educational early intervention. Could the Minister of State speak to that, perhaps around what we could put in place to allow parents or the schools to report on it?

Could we get a brief update on those children in secondary education who are facing into the junior certificate or leaving certificate, and the supports that might be in place for them? I am particularly thinking of those students would have been struggling with online learning already and how that might interact with State examinations.